Justice Department Asked to Investigate Tejada

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: January 16, 2008

The House committee holding hearings into baseball and steroids promised an early news nugget, and it delivered: The committee formally asked the Department of Justice to investigate the star shortstop Miguel Tejada on the suspicion that he made false statements to the committee nearly three years ago.

The committee said that Tejada, who played the last four seasons with the Baltimore Orioles before being traded to the Houston Astros last month, might have misrepresented facts when he denied knowledge of steroid use by himself and teammates during its August 2005 investigation of possible perjury by Rafael Palmeiro, then a teammate. Making false statements to government officials is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

The committee's allegation is based on claims in the report released last month by the former Senator George J. Mitchell that Tejada used steroids. The Mitchell report described how one of Tejada's former Oakland A's teammates, Adam Piatt, told Mitchell's investigators that he had provided steroids to Tejada in March 2003. Piatt produced canceled checks written to him by Tejada for $3,100 and $3,200.

On Tuesday, Henry A. Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform, and Tom Davis, its ranking minority member, explained in a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey that they wanted an investigation into Tejada's statements because ''they materially influenced the course of the committee's investigation in 2005.''

That investigation examined whether Palmeiro had lied during testimony in March 2005 when he said he had never used steroids. Seven weeks later, Palmeiro tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. He subsequently suggested that he believed the injection in question was a dose of vitamin B12 that he had received from Tejada.

The committee ultimately decided -- in part, it now says, because of Tejada's testimony -- that there was not enough evidence to support a perjury charge against Palmeiro.

With Tuesday's announcement, the Palmeiro investigation has created the possibility that Tejada will endure something similar, which could disrupt his first season with the Astros. Tejada is scheduled to begin workouts Feb. 19 at the Astros' spring-training camp in Kissimmee, Fla.

Telephone and e-mail messages left with Tejada's agent, Diego Bentz, were not immediately returned. Tejada has been playing winter baseball for the Aguilas Cibaenas team in his native Dominican Republic and was not able to be reached for comment. The Associated Press reported that the team said Tejada's older brother Freddy was killed Tuesday in a traffic accident in the Dominican Republic.

In October 2006, after Tejada was identified in a Los Angeles Times report as having been named by his former teammate Jason Grimsley in a federal affidavit regarding a steroids investigation, Tejada told The Baltimore Sun: ''I know that I've never used that, and I know I am clean. I don't worry about anybody who puts me in that stuff. I'll get checked out for anybody, any time, any moment -- whenever they want.''

Tejada's reappearance in the baseball steroids controversy re-energized the analysis of his trade last month. The day before the Mitchell report was scheduled to be released publicly, the Orioles sent Tejada -- whom they had been trying to trade on and off for years, mainly for economic reasons -- to the Astros for five young and considerably less notable players. Tejada's being named as a steroids user in the report a day later prompted questions of whether Orioles officials received an early preview of the report's contents.

The Orioles' owner, Peter Angelos, attended the committee hearing Tuesday and said in an interview afterward that he and his club did not know about Tejada's inclusion in the Mitchell report before the trade. Major League Baseball officials received the report Dec. 11 for review, but the league has said that no individual club or team official had early access to it.

''I never had any indication that he used illegal substances,'' Angelos said of Tejada. ''You hear a lot of rumors, particularly in recent years, but I don't operate on rumors.''

Tal Smith, the Astros' president, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that the committee's wish to investigate Tejada came as a surprise to him -- and that he, too, had not seen the Mitchell report or known of its contents until it was released publicly. Smith declined to comment on conversations the Astros might have had with Tejada since the release of the report or on what steps the club may now take.

Tejada, a four-time All-Star and the American League's most valuable player in 2002 with the Oakland A's, signed a six-year, $72 million contract with Baltimore after the 2003 season. In 2007, he batted .296 with 18 home runs and 81 runs batted in. A 31-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, he is scheduled to receive a $13 million salary in each of the next two seasons. The Orioles, a team in need of rebuilding, traded him for outfielder Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and the third-base prospect Michael Costanzo.

Tejada made his statements to the House committee at a Baltimore hotel on Aug. 26, 2005. That night against the A's, he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.